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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Experiencing How ‘LO DO KHATAM KARO’ Works

Like everyone, “LO DO KHATAM KARO’ had caught my fancy as
well a little while ago. I wondered how does this work, but naturally I was
either too busy or too lazy to find out.

On a lazy Sunday, as I relaxed watching a movie, I got a
surprise invitation visit Freecharge office on 26th of September to
know what a virtual wallet looks like (which off course I know since I have
been using it since 2012 and loving it as well) and how their office functions.
It was a working day, and I was a bit sceptical about skipping my work and
going out there, but then like usual my curiosity took over and I couldn’t let
the chance of finding out about Freecharge go by.

I knew it would be great to catch up with Freecharge at
their own office, have an open discussion with the people running the show and
see in real how they do things, why they do them and where do they do them. So
finally I would know How ‘LO DO KHATAM KARO’ Works. Great!

So I was off on Monday morning to Salarpuria
Adonis where the office was situated. It was a small group of bloggers who
gathered there to know more and learn about Freecharge

Virtual Wallet.

The Welcome Kit From Freecharge

Though new in the market, launched in September 2015, I
could see that Freecharge has seen a surge of growth in the last one year. No
wonder the market for it is growing since FreeCharge allows customers to make
prepaid, postpaid, DTH, metro recharge and utility bill payments for numerous
service providers. It was amazing to know that the traditional Indians who do
not welcome change easily were already
using Freecharge to pay across all major online platforms and offline stores
like Shoppers Stop, McDonalds, Cinepolis, HomeStop, Crosswords, Hypercity and
even for E-Rickshaws, the list is growing by the day.

What looked highly impressive was the introduction of Chat-n-Pay
service which is all about social payments which conveniently includes even the
ever famous WhatsApp. It is an engaging
and secure way for customers to effortlessly Chat-n-Pay to friends, family, and
merchants in less than 5 seconds. No searching for that perfect change anymore.
It also enables merchants, small or large to accept digital payments in less
than 1 minute after registering on the FreeCharge App.

We met the various teams of Freecharge engaged and
completely engrossed in their work, oblivious to the group of bloggers passing
around the cool office. They were busy working on Automation, Analytics,
Infrastructure and Security of the virtual wallet aimed to win over customers
with the ease of usage and safe transactions.

We had brief discussion with their CEO, Govind Rajan, who
with a dash of humour explained about the product, the present functions, the
future plans and why and how of Freecharge. One thing I realized is that
Freecharge is more concerned and worried about me losing money to phishing
attacks or frauds then I am. LOL. When next time I will see my transaction
declined by them, I will do better than grumbling, since I know now that they are
trying to secure my money and do not want me to become a victim of fraud or
phishing.

Time just flew by with sessions by Ishan Vaish -
Director Products, Varun Arora - Sr. Product Manager, CNB - AVP Infrastructure,
Fareed Jawad - VP and Principal Product Architect, Ajay Bhutani - VP Technology
which was followed by lunch and finally winding up with a visit to CS team.

I never witnessed the barter system, but I have seen the
days when my dad would bring the salary home. When he first received his salary
in form of Cheque, it was considered a great breakthrough and I would visit the
bank with him, whenever it was possible. Then came of the era of debit/credit
cards or what we call plastic money. I was set up in a small town back then,
and when I mentioned opting for debit card, people were very scared for the
security of their money. I think I was one of the first person from my
surrounding to opt for it, and also for online payments. Like usual we feel
this is the peak of ease transactions can reach, when we customers are pampered
again with more easy payments. The latest to addition is virtual wallets, which
makes payments just a click away. The sheer convenience of having money
anywhere you want it without even carrying it on your person is tempting enough
for anyone to go for it.

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I checked the transactions on Freecharge and found that I
could make prepaid mobile recharge, pay my postpaid and DTH bill within a
minute.

A screen shot of payments made

I usually remember the important payments due usually when I
am playing games, I play games on my Android phone, windows laptop, iPad 2 and
Samsung tab. When I find a payment app that works across all platform, it sure
gets a pat on the back from my side.

New changes are going to come, and you can look out for
them. At present Freecharge gives its customers a safe, secure and easy to use
virtual wallet which meet their needs perfectly.

At present Freecharge offers customers a promise of :

·An easy and instant recharging process

·A hassle-free online experience

·A safe and secure payment process

·Best discounts available in the market

·Simple voucher redemption with no hidden costs
or complex terms and conditions

·And a totally satisfied you, who'll want to come
back to us again and again

·After all, you know it's a smart thing to do!

The customer care department of Freecharge

After lunch when we visited their customer care team, we
realized they function on three levels. If the ‘Lo do khatham karo’ does flow
smoothly, you can be ensured of help at your fingertips as well.